Highlights of the BBC – Test Match Special Outside UK

Many years ago, I saved up ready to spend on my dream holiday – watching cricket in the Caribbean. After years of listening to descriptions of CMJ and Boycott strolling down some sun swept beach to a cricket stadium seemingly on the shoreline to the sounds of calypso music – I hoped finally it would be my turn. Unfortunately it didn’t work out, a series of rising expenses – can you believe my wife wanted to come too (and my children!) and some vacation issues spoiled my dream.

So I have returned to the next best option which is going somewhere sunny, sitting on a lounger with a cocktail and test Match Special on the radio. Except it doesn’t work, you think you can tune in your radio and pick up TMS (Test match Special) on long wave or better still just point a browser to the BBC iPlayer web site but you’ll be disappointed. All the TV stuff and the majority of the radio stations don’t work outside the UK, they check your IP address and stop all non-UK ones. There are occasionally a TMS overseas link posted on on the BBC channel which has Test match special live Youtube footage but it’s fairly erratic and not always guaranteed.

How to Listen to Test Match Special Outside UK

It seems very unfair, after all I pay for my TV license which presumably funds not only the programmes but the website itself. So why should’t I be able to listen to TMS abroad 2017 or even in 2018. Yet if I dare to step outside the United Kingdom it all stops working, no access at the point when I really need it most. There were plans afoot to stop this ridiculous situation, the EU are promoting the establishment of a fair digital market which allows access across geographic borders but I suppose Brexit has put a stop to that. So we’re left with a stupid situation that is pervasive across the world – leave your home county and most of your favorite web sites stop working.

It can be fixed, of course it can – there’s always a workaround on the internet, yet it does cost money. You just need to hide your IP address by redirecting through a VPN service which hides your location – something like this – http://bbciplayerabroad.co.uk/. This doubles up as a security service, to protect your logon credentials when using unknown wifi connections, but also allows the user the ability to sidestep all these stupid region locking attempts. Here’s basically how it’s done, although this demonstrates how to watch TV stations it can also be used to listen to all radio stations including 5 Live sports Extra abroad too.

It’s quite simple really, instead of your computer directly connecting to the website in question (let’s say the BBC for this example), it goes to the VPN server first. This connection is completely encrypted and so your data is safe but also any connection then appears to come from the VPN server not your computer. So the location of the VPN server is important not you, and the best providers have established a global network of these servers all in different countries. So if you want to access the BBC then you choose a UK based VPN, want some US only site like Hulu then choose one based in the USA and so on.

That’s it really, how to listen to Test match special in Europe or indeed anywhere else in the world as long as you have a decent internet connection. It works on all sorts of devices and is the perfect way to access a TMS or BBC Radio 5 live stream or any other TV or radio station.